"I love it here!"

Hello to my beautiful family and friends!

I hope all of you are doing so well! You are all in my thoughts and prayers! Thank you for all the emails and support! This last week absolutely flew by! I was looking through my pictures and I said to my companion, “I’m going to miss this place so much!”

Adventures outside the MTC

This week was a wonderful one for sure! First off, General Conference was amazing! I am so excited for the three new leaders of our church! General Conference happens twice a year and we get to hear inspiring messages for us from God! The leaders in our church give talks and they are so amazing! To learn what our prophet and other church leaders had to say at this session of General Conference, click HERE. Sunday afternoon we were able to leave the missionary training center (MTC)! We get a little claustrophobic being inside all day, but we were able to go to this huge park across the street, take pictures and enjoy the outdoors. It was wonderful! I am so blessed to be here. Monday was awesome, but Tuesday was a very sad day! All of the elders that were here with us, left to the mission field and it was pretty hard on me and the other elders here. They were my best friends and the best examples! They are so amazing and they are going to do good out there in their respective missions! So on Tuesday all day, it was just 9 of us in the MTC it was so quiet! We were able to leave again and walked to the "la tienda" store. It is like a ghetto Walmart! I thought I was used to the humidity, but that has backfired for sure! It was super humid! We were all pouring in sweat and walked so fast back to the MTC to get in the air conditioner!

Me and my companion in front of the temple

In front of the temple

The newbies (newer missionaries) got here yesterday and there is about 20 of them! They are still shy but thery are super cool! Today was amazing! We go to the temple in the morning and it just makes you so motivated to work harder in this glorious work! To learn more about LDS Temples, click HERE. My companion and I were just asked to be the Assistants to the MTC President. We are both really nervous, yet humbled and excited. I love the President and his wife so much.  They are so good to us missionaries! I love it here! We have two new investigators! Rosa is 75 and single. She can’t read so we read the scriptures in the lesson, which is good practice and sometimes funny! She is a sweet old abuela  and so its awesome! She wants to be baptized! Our other investigator is Socrates. He is a CEO of a company and is all about his family. We have been teaching him about the Book of Mormon.  He has been reading it and it makes him feel good! W explained about how that good feeling is the Spirit.  It is still hard to communicate because were super gringo and don’t know a whole lot, but last nights lesson was our best one for sure!

 

New hair cut

I’m learning a lot. I love it and I miss you all, but I know I’m out here for a reason. I can’t wait to get to Puerto Rico. I love it already so much and haven’t even been there! I am so blessed and thankful to my loving Heavenly Father, my Savior Jesus Christ and my constant companion, the Holy Ghost! This Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is true! I promise and I know! Our message is simple and marvelous. If you haven’t heard it yet, then hear it! Ask me any questions or any other LDS members, or go to mormon.org and see what were all about. It will change your life forever and you will draw nearer to God! You will begin to have a relationship with Him and you'll find a plan that provides hope in this life and in the life to come! Read the Book of Mormon. Its true! Read and ask God if it is true. Take “Moroni's challenge” in Moroni 10:3-5 (In the Book of Mormon)! To read "Moroni's challenge, click HERE.  To read the Book of Mormon, click HERE. 

I love you all and I wish you the best! I challenge you all to endure to the end! This life is a miracle, so lets live like its one!

Peace and Love from The Dominican Republic,

Elder Blake Waidmann